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We’ve seen some NBA GMs blatantly attempting to tank by letting their star players leave through trades and free agency. The Jazz, Celtics, Bucks, Hawks, and 76ers are examples of teams letting go of star players. All in the hopes of landing a player in the 2014 draft that can carry their team for the next decade. Hardcore basketball fans have heard of Andrew Wiggins of the Kansas Jayhawks. Wiggins is only the 2nd player ever to be named a preseason All-American honors as a freshman (Harrison Barnes was the first). Wiggins is a super athletic wing who many consider to be the top pick in the 2014 NBA draft. Due to the obvious tanking by some teams, fan-base are making slogans like “riggin’ for Wiggins” Unfortunately, there are multiple tanking teams but only 1 Andrew Wiggins.

But he isn’t the only player that can change the fortunes of a franchise. In fact, Wiggins wasn’t even considered the best prospect for this class initially. He was expected to graduate high school in 2014 and enter the 2015 draft, but ended up reclassifying so he can graduate in 2013 and play college basketball this season.

The original top prospect of 2013 was a forward from Chicago named Jabari Parker. He was dubbed by Sports Illustrated as “the best high school basketball player since Lebron James.”

Parker played for Chicago powerhouse Simeon Career Academy (same school to produce Derrick Rose, Benji Wilson and others that would play in the NBA). Simeon has had a long tradition of not letting freshmen play on the varsity team no matter how talented. But for Parker they made an exception and he became the first freshman ever to start for the varsity squad. During his 4 year career he was named freshman of the year, sophomore of the year, junior of the year, and national player of the year. He was a 3 time state time champion, and won 2 gold medals in FIBA Americas U16 & U17 championship.

Parker is a highly skilled player. He can play multiple position and has a versatile game. Like Lebron, he is an excellent passer, and has a reputation for making his teammates better. He posses excellent footwork and is very patient. He plays like he’s been receiving NBA caliber coaching his whole life. He is very polished, dangerous scorer. The main knock on him is his athleticism but his critics might need to reconsider that after this amazing dunk he had during a scrimmage. A foot injury during his senior season also caused some weight gain which affected his athleticism last year.

He seems to be in better shape in his first (and probably last) season with Duke. Coach K will get the best out of this talented player. The Blue Devils’ style of play and roster also compliments Parker very well. Parker scored an efficient 22 points in 23 minutes in his season debut against Davidson. Next, he’ll face Kansas and fellow freshman phenom, Andrew Wiggins. They both have tremendous respect for each other and this won’t be the first time they’ve faced off and it sure won’t be the last. Wiggins has the elite athleticism to get defenders into foul trouble quickly but if Parker can perform well, he’ll have a chance to show GMs why they might need to reconsider the order of their draft board. Some fans might trade one stupid slogan for another. They might go from “Riggin for Wiggins” to “Plunging for Parker” (or “Jeopardize for Jabari”). Wiggins and Parker are developing a rivalry and will forever be linked, especially if they’re drafted 1st and 2nd in the draft. I look forward to watching them go head to head and hope that we can get a rematch in March.

Scary thing is that these aren’t the only prospects expected to enter this upcoming draft with NBA superstar potential . Keep an eye out for other players like Julius Randle of Kentucky and Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State who some also consider to have a shot of getting drafted 1st or 2nd overall (or at the very worst top 5).

For the last few seasons, people have been expecting the Celtics’ big 3 (consisting of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett) to break up. We knew they were getting older and couldn’t carry this team forever. We saw that breakup start to take place when Ray Allen left for Miami last year. This offseason, Celtics GM, Danny Ainge traded away Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets. The Celtics will now rely more heavily on Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green to carry the load. The Celtics also traded their coach, Doc Rivers, to the L.A. Clippers. (Yes, you actually can trade a coach). Ainge then plucked Brad Stevens from Butler to be the new head coach of the Celtics. Stevens is considered a bright, young coach with a lot of potential. But some experts are concerned about how Rondo will react to all the changes, especially if the Celtics are losing. Rondo has had a history of butting heads with coaches and teammates in the past, which cause some to fear how this coach-star partnership will play out.

Most fans and experts assume that the Celtics are in rebuild mode. The recent success of teams like the Thunder and Bulls have caused more teams to build through the draft. And this is the perfect year to do that, because there are many talented freshmen in college basketball expected to declare. At the top of that list is Andrew Wiggins, small forward for Kansas, who everyone expects to be the 1st overall pick in the upcoming draft and there are plenty other talented players expected to go in the draft that could change a team’s future for the better.

Rondo is coming back from ACL surgery. He has already said that he plans on taking his time recovering from this injury. You can’t help but wonder if he should take a year off like another star point guard in Derrick Rose. Even if Rondo comes back mid-season, Celtics will probably have a losing record and a slim chance at making the playoffs. This has caused some to wonder if the Celtics might be better off tanking so they can try to get a future superstar from this loaded draft class. All of these factors have caused rumors that the Celtics are shopping Rondo. It wouldn’t be the first time, Danny Ainge has always had a history of gauging the interest that other teams have in his star players.

Anytime that theres speculation that a star could get traded, you can’t help but think of possible scenarios. We’ll be listing more scenarios in the future, but I wanted to go over a popular one now:

Rondo to the Kings.

Grantland writer, Bill Simmons suggested a scenario which would involve the Celtics moving out Rondo, Gerald Wallace and MarShon Brooks for Ben McLemore, Greivis Vasquez (expiring), Patrick Patterson (expiring), John Salmons (expiring) and Jimmer Fredette. Boston would also have the option to swap 1st round draft picks with Sacramento for 3 years.

The Kings are a team that many feel are 1 piece away from being a perennial playoff team. The problem with scenario is that the salaries for the teams wouldn’t match. Kings would be receiving too much in salary for this to work within the rules.

Even if the GMs found a way to make this work this is still a risky trade for several reasons. Pairing Rondo with talented center Demarcus Cousins could make for a formidable 1-2 punch but both guys have reputations of being disruptive in the locker room at times which could cause issues with team chemistry. Another concern is that Rondo is coming off major knee surgery and there is no guarantee that he will be the same player he was before. He also will no longer have the luxury of playing with multiple future hall of famers like he did in Boston. Will he still be as effective with a weaker supporting cast? Also, Rondo will also be due for an extension after next season, and you can bet that he’ll be looking for a max contract. This could make the new Kings ownership hesitant to commit those type of dollars to someone with plenty of question marks.

Personally, I’d sit Rondo out for the season, tank, and pair Rondo with a player in this upcoming draft.